1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input/output apparatus which displays data, handwritten with a pen, on the display screen, and analyzes and processes the handwritten data.
2. Description of the Related Art
People often take notes in meetings, conferences or the like as memos. To assist people in making memos, handwriting apparatuses or so called "electronic notebooks," have been developed as a replacement of ordinary paper notebooks.
In a meeting, conference or the like, important speeches or opinions may be recorded on a tape recorder for later confirmation or for later preparation of proceedings. To take notes on an electronic notebook and record speeches on a tape recorder in a meeting, conference or the like, conventionally, a user should carry both devices. As the two devices are separately operated, the handwritten notes and recorded speeches should be collated with each other. This collation takes time and thus stands in the way of fast confirmation of the contents of the meeting or quick preparation of proceedings.
Further, the user may not promptly operate the two devices and may not therefore be able to concentrate on the contents of the meeting or conference, so that the user would understand the contents of the meeting or conference only after confirming them with those devices which should be used as assisting tools.
The techniques for accomplishing various editions, such as data insertion and deletion, with data and/or commands handwritten with a pen are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,504, 4,972,496 and 4,475,239.
More specifically, those U.S. patents teach the schemes of deleting data displayed at a position where an editing command image is handwritten, or inserting desired handwritten data at such a position.
Those disclosed schemes process only data that is input with an input device, such as a pen or a keyboard, and none of the U.S. patents teach the technique of accessing and processing data that is input with a voice input device. What is more, none of the U.S. patents consider or suggest a scheme of managing data handwritten with a pen and input voice data in close association with each other.